Political Correctness is not anti-rascist, it is pro-fascist. Rascism is just one of the things that it is fascist about.

Many people, like myself, detest political correctness. And by the way, YES, I understand the roots of political correctness, NO I am not a racist.

Political correctness is generally about issues like avoiding ethnically offensive language. This, on the whole, is a good thing. Ethnically offensive language makes for more social friction, which is bad.

The problem, at least that I have, with political correctness, is the tactics. Getting people fired, ruining people's lives. And any attempt to oppose political correctness, or in fact any "liberal" political position, is met with accusations about racism, sexism, etc. Never is there an issue-oriented debate. Never is argument met with argument.

This is bad - this is very bad. It stops debate, and it doesn't do much to solve the problem. An eye for an eye is a principle of ethics that says the -MOST- you can do as punishment is for the punishment to fit the crime. This is not the case when a businessman tells a sexist joke on his time off and is canned, or two students exchange angry words and one of them loses their tuition and enrollment to placate the other's lawyer. If you make rules and enforce them, okay. But the punishment should fit the crime. We let our anger at someone's actions get out of hand, and instead of justice, it becomes vengeance. Not okay.

McCarthy attacked communists - he was right about communism being very very bad. Communism has killed more people than virtually any other horror of the 20th century (it had a longer "run", but this is still a significant record to hold). The problem, was his tactics. He picked the "right side" of the fight and did evil things in "service" to it.

Political Correctness picks the right sides - anti-racism, anti-sexism. Then it tears people's lives apart and craps all over people's civil rights in service of these basic, noble goals. Just because we disagree with someone, however strongly, does not take away their rights to free assembly, free speech, etc.

Some things that go by the label of political correctness are okay. What offends me is when people are thrown out of Universities, lose their jobs, etc, because of things they say - a basic attack on civil rights, far in excess of anything they have done. Thought policing is evil. So is racism, but two wrongs don't make a right.

If you think that someone's opinion of welfare reform (and other similar stances) comes from racist motivation, maybe it does, in their case. But calling people racist is not an argument, not a legitimate one anyway.

We are so afraid to be called that term that (some) people use it whenever they want the other side to back down. There is a certain cheap thrill in calling someone a racist - like the red scare, we want to be the one to guard society from the 'darned commies' and 'evil bigots'.

And finally, yes, some racists /do/ oppose political correctness for no other reason than that they are racist and political correctness advocates claim to be against racism. I would argue this is not the common case. Either way, it is worse for society to engage in political witch-hunts (like McCartheism, and extreme Political Correctness) than to just have a calm debate.